Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Optimized Xanthene-Based Probes For Pancreatic Cancer Imaging, Ian Ruramai Munhenzva

Dissertations and Theses

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest human malignancies with an extremely poor 5-year survival rate of below 5%. Surgical resection is the most effective treatment of choice because chemotherapy and radiation therapy do not improve life expectancy. Residual tumor after PDAC surgery is common due to a lack of PDAC targeted intraoperative contrast agents to confirm clear margins.

Fluorescence imaging has the potential to improve surgery outcome and PDAC patients' survival rate via the use of highly PDAC-specific molecular probes to facilitate tumor identification. This thesis describes the application of a focused library of benzoxanthene fluorophores for …

Molecular Probes For Pancreatic Cancer Imaging, Lei Wang

Dissertations and Theses

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has the poorest five-year survival rate of any cancer. Currently, there are no effective diagnostics or chemotherapeutics. Surgical resection is the only curative therapy. However, most patients experience recurrence due largely to challenges in assessing tumor margin status in the operating room. Molecular probes that selectively highlight pancreatic cancer tissue, having the potential to improve PDAC margin assessment intraoperatively, are urgently needed. In this work, a series of red and near-infrared fluorescent probes is reported. Two were found to distribute to normal pancreas following systemic administration. One selectively accumulates in genetically modified mouse models of PDAC, …

Selective Indicators For Optical Determination Of Disease Biomarkers, Lovemore Hakuna

Dissertations and Theses

The most abundant biological thiols, homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys) and glutathione (GSH) have been the subject of intense research due to their association with a wide range of diseases. They play a key role in maintaining the redox status of biological systems. Selective detection methods for these thiols are challenging due to their similar structures and properties. Current commercially available detection methods use separations, fragile and expensive enzymatic or immunogenic materials and complex instrumentation. This has led to a global effort towards developing simple and inexpensive optical probes and indicators selective for specific biological thiols.

Highly selective chemical probes and …